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SERMON 



PREACHED IN THE 



BRATTLE SQUARE CHURCH, 

r 



ON THE SUNDAY SUCCEEDING THE DEATH OF 



^ HON. DANIEL WEBSTER 



15 T 

REV. S. K. LOTHROP 



PUBLISHED BY REUUKST. 



BOSTON: 
1852. 

EASTBURN'S PRESS. 



SERMON. 



GENESIS, xlviii, 81. 
"BEHOLD I DIE — BUT GOD SHALL BE WITn TOU." 

Thus did the patriarch Jacob, as the hour of death 
approached, address his children. He on whose wisdom 
they had leaned, whose counsel had been their guide, 
whose presence had been their joy, he who had been 
the central point to which their affections through long 
years had ever turned with filial confidence and a deep 
reverence, — -he was to depart. That voice that had so 
often thrilled their souls was to be hushed ; that eye 
that had gleamed with the lustre of a noble intellect, 
strong in faith and devout in purpose, was to be closed; 
the earthly counsels that had guided, and the earthly 
love that had blessed them, were to be theirs no more. 
Death demanded his prey, and death is absolute and 
inexorable. The Shepherds of Canaan, perplexed and 
sorrowful, are to be left alone in the land of Egypt, 



without that central light that had guided them, with- 
out that paternal voice that spoke with the authority 
of wisdom and of years. 

But the patriarch knew in whom he had trusted, 
and in whom his children could still confide, be- 
neath whose care they would ever be safe. Briefly 
and beautifully does he comfort their hearts and his 
own with a sublime truth. " Behold I die, but God 
shall be with you." Amid the chances and changes 
of earth, the trials and calamities of life, this is the 
great consolation. There is a God, almighty, all 
wise, all merciful, whose will is the law, whose wis- 
dom is the guide, whose love the stay and blessing 
of the universe. There is a God ; we know this or we 
know nothing; we may refuse to believe more, we 
must believe this. The universe did not create itself, 
its elements do not govern themselves. They are kept 
in order and harmony, not by a will that is in them but 
by a will that is above them. There is one who speaks 
and it is done, who commands and it stands fast, and in 
Him we may trust. Other things may prove to be shad- 
ows, false, fleeting, vain; God is an eternal reality. 
Other things may change. Friends may depart or prove 
treacherous ; kindred may die or grow cold ; fortune 
may fail or be cankered in its enjoyment, but God re- 
mains the refuge and the stay of them that trust in 
him. He is with us and ever shall be with us. 



And this God is our God, the framer of our bodies, 
the father of our spirits, the disposer of our lot. "We 
did not create ourselves. We are not original and self 
existent. We feel, we know that some mighty and 
creative power breathed into us the breath of life, 
gave us these frames that are fearfully and wonderfully 
made ; gave us these intelligent, thinking, conscious 
souls, which are crowned with the fearful glory of im- 
mortality and accountableness. And this creative pow- 
er still owns us, has an absolute possession of us, ex- 
ercises a paternal providence over us. We are allowed 
a measure of freedom, of self-government, that through 
action and co-operation, we may make progress toward 
that perfect holiness and happiness which are the pur- 
pose of God in our being. But because of this measure 
of freedom, we often forget how absolutely we are God's 
and not our own, how completely we are dependent 
upon him. Strictly speaking we have no ownership of 
ourselves, no absolute possession even of the soul itself. 
It is God's soul and not ours. He created it and not 
we. Its essence is unknown to us. Its action, the 
birth of its first thought and of every thought is a pro- 
found enigma to us. It is subject to influences beyond 
our reach or control. Its memory, — we cannot forbid 
that, that it go not back along the track of the past, 
call up the scenes of other years, bring before us 



6 



the forms, pour into our ears the voices of those who 
have long slept in dust ; and thus fill our hearts with 
sadness. Its imagination — we can forbid that, that it 
transport us not into the future, make present and 
visible what has never been and may never be, and thus 
fill us with fearful apprehensions. Its conscience, — we 
cannot make that slumber forever. We cannot lull it 
with opiates that shall never fail. We cannot despise 
it, and trample upon it and subdue it, and thus forbid 
that it go not back to some hour of sin and wrong-do- 
ing, and bring it all up before the soul with terrible 
distinctness, and beneath the very darkness and soli- 
tude of midnight, make us blush with shame, and weep 
bitter and scalding tears. Ah, Brethren, it may be well, 
it is well for man to remember his greatness, it is bet- 
ter for him to remember his weakness. It may be well 
for him to remember that he is made but little lower 
than the angels and crowned with glory and honor, — 
but never let him forsret who made him and crowned 
him thus, — never let him forget that he always has been, 
ever will be a dependent, absolutely dependent child of 
God. 

To this point of repose, a sense of dependence, of sub- 
mission to the divine will, of trust in the divine good- 
ness, does the patriarch direct the minds of his chil- 
dren, " Behold I die, but God shall be with you." To 



this point of repose does the devout heart ever turn 
amid the exigencies of life ; and it is only as the heart 
reposes here, only as it rests on God with that clear and 
abiding faith which Christ inspires, that it is strong, 
either for the action or the endurance that may be de- 
manded of it. Sometimes there are sharp and sudden 
conflicts with evil, in which action, brave, manly, coura- 
geous action is required of the soul. There are stormy 
passages in the sea of life, tempestuous gales, narrow 
straits, frowning rocks, roaring breakers, and amid 
these the bark that bears the destiny of a human soul 
is sometimes tossed widely upon the waves of temptation 
and driven madly by the winds of passion. Not a mo- 
ment may be lost. Delay is destruction. Conscience 
must instantly take the helm, and amid all the roar of 
the elements, hear only and obey only the voice of God. 
Faith must unfurl the chart of life, and amid all the in- 
viting channels that offer, keep close to that one, narrow 
and difficult, which Christ, the divine guide, has pointed 
out. When such exigencies arise, and action, courage, 
a great and steady endeavor is demanded, only the soul 
that reposes on God can make that endeavor — only the 
soul that feels his presence, is " strong in the Lord and 
in the power of his might," is able to say, " I can do 
all things through Christ's strengthening me," — only 
this soul shall succeed and triumph in the strife. 



8 



But sometimes simply endurance, a calm waiting, a 
patient trust, a meek submission is demanded of us. 
As the ship is sometimes exposed to the fury of the 
elements, so sometimes it is becalmed. A dense, dark 
fog encircles it ; no beacon light can be seen, no pilot 
can be found, no answer is heard to its signal guns ; the 
right pathway through the waters cannot be discerned ; 
there is danger in motion and nothing remains for the 
most experienced mariner but to be calm and quiet, to 
wait God's time for the lifting up of the darkness, 
the shining forth of the cheerful sun, and the incom- 
ing of the favorable breeze. So is it sometimes in 
life. The soul feels itself enveloped in darkness and 
mystery. Inexplicable changes come upon it. Trial 
and bereavement, a desert like desolation of solitude 
and sorrow is appointed it ; no green spot appears, no 
murmuring fountains gush up in the barren waste of its 
pilgrimage. It can discern no pathway in the chang- 
ing and uncertain sands. A starless night, a midnight 
hour of darkness and doubt is upon it. It can do noth- 
ing ; it must wait and trust, — wait for the day to dawn 
and the day star to arise, — trust in God to lift up the 
cloud of sorrow, to lighten the burden of trial, to 
point out the way of duty, and lead the heart hi the 
path of peace. Only the soul that feels God to be with 
it, only the soul that leans upon an almighty arm, trusts 



9 



the divine wisdom, reposes on the divine love, — only 
this soul can thus endure, and be calm, patient, sub- 
missive. Here is the great consolation ; and a blessed 
and abundant consolation it is. God is with us and 
shall ever be with us in the plenitude of his power, in 
the wisdom and mercy of his providence. 

" Human watch from harm can't ward us — 
God will keep and God will guard us." 

He, who sends the dew to the drooping flower, who 
pours out the rain upon the thirsty grass, will send the 
dew of his blessing, pour out the shower of his grace, of 
his consolation and guidance upon the drooping, thirsty 
and trusting soul. Human help may fail, but the rod 
and the staff of God shall support us. Human wisdom, 
the prophet, the counsellor and mighty man may de- 
part, but the wisdom of God abides to illumine a new 
generation, and guide his children in the way. This is 
the great thought, — the universal presence and provi- 
dence of God, — to which the patriarch turned for peace ; 
and peace was poured into his soul. " Behold I die— 
but God shall be with you." And every parent may 
turn to it in the hour of death, and find it rich in con- 
solation to his spirit. He dies but God shall be with 
his children. Those children, whom his power can no 
longer protect, his counsel guide, or his love bless, shall 



10 



be upheld by a mightier arm, guided by a diviner wis- 
dom, blessed by a holier love. God shall be with 
them, and amid the great consolations of this thought, 
the departing parent breathes his last in peace. The 
patriot statesman may turn to it for light and hope, 
in that dark hour when the shadow of death is upon 
his eyelids and its chill upon his brow. He must die, 
but God shall be with his country. That country he has 
loved, honored and served, with a wide, unsectional, de- 
voted patriotism ; his intellect has borne sway in her 
councils, his eloquence has thrilled her listening senates, 
his colossal wisdom has been a bulwark and a defence 
to all her interests. But this can no longer be. Death 
asserts its power; lie must depart, but God shall be 
with his country ; its prosperity and power rest with 
the Divine wisdom ; leaving them to that protection 
his great patriot heart is at peace. The citizen may 
turn to it, in the hour of his country's bereavement 
and sorrow. A great light is extinguished, but the 
fountain of all light abides. A great statesman, whose 
genius could grapple with the most profound, unravel 
the most perplexed, make clear the darkest and most 
intricate themes of public policy, must go down to a 
grave hallowed by a nation's reverence and regret, but 
God is still with his country. There is a wisdom 
mightier than that of man that shall guide its affairs,-— 



11 



a divine love from which patriotism gathers all its in- 
spiration, that shall preserve and bless it. In that wis- 
dom he trusts, to that love he looks up and is at peace. 
His country, in mourning and in tears, bereft of the 
greatest of her sons, is still safe with God. I turned 
to it myself, as a citizen and a man, I could not but 
turn to it a week ago to-day, when in a distant city 
the muffled tolling of the bells announced what all ex- 
pected yet dreaded to hear, — an announcement which 
as it travelled with the speed of lightning from city to 
city, brought a shock to every heart, an expression of 
thoughtful sadness to every countenance and spread 
over all social life a gloom, more easily felt and shared 
in, than described. 

Though unable always to concur in all his opinions 
on all public affairs, yet with hundreds of thousands in 
the land, I had been accustomed from my earliest man- 
hood, to regard Mr. Webster as a statesman with the 
profoundest confidence and respect. There seemed to 
be an almost unfathomable depth of wisdom and pene- 
tration in his giant intellect. One felt that so long as 
he lived, come what would, there would be one among 
us mighty enough for any emergency that might hap- 
pen to the country, whose voice would be heard, and 
whose influence on public affairs and public opinion 
would be felt, whatever might be his station or office. 



12 



Thus regarding him, and feeling that no one man liv- 
ing among us was his equal, in grasp and power of 
mind, his death was to me as to all, a shock which 
threw me hack at once upon my trust in Providence as 
the guardian and the guide of nations, and the words 
of the patriarch in the text, came up to my mind as a 
consolation and a solace, under the irreparahle loss our 
own nation had sustained. 

It is not for the pulpit to speak Mr. Webster's eulo- 
gy, recount his services, delineate his character, and 
determine his place on the world's great roll of fame. 
This will he done, and more appropriately done by 
some one competent to the theme, in that field where 
he won his laurels and did his great work for the coun- 
try and the world. But his death is an event which 
the pulpit cannot and ought not to leave unnoticed. It 
is an event which has every where produced a profound 
sensation in our own land. It will be recognized 
throughout the world as an event to be lamented — a 
large diminution of the world's living wisdom. It is an 
event which to many of us, members of this church 
and society, where for more than a quarter of a cen- 
tury, and so long as he had a domicil in the city, he 
was commonly accustomed to worship and commune, 
brings up many pleasant and hallowed associations, 
which we woidd not forget, and upon which death 
lias now set his seal of sacrcdiicss. 



13 



Of the intellectual greatness of Mr. Webster there can 
be but one opinion. The amount and value of the ser- 
vices he rendered to his country during more than forty 
years of active public life can hardly be over-estimated. 
What Milton was among the poets, what Bacon was 
among philosophers, such was Mr. Webster among ora- 
tors and statesmen,' — great among the greatest. In his 
speeches and writings, there is a solid and sublime depth 
of thought, an elevation of tone and a simple grandeur 
of idea and illustration, that will cause them to live, to 
be studied and to command admiration, so long as the 
Anglo-Saxon language has a name on the earth. In 
our own country, through all coming time, generation 
after generation will be guided and instructed by some 
of the great thoughts he uttered, the great constitu- 
tional principles he defended, hi speeches replete with 
all the splendors of eloquence, breathing a majestic 
spirit of patriotism, and combining all the force and 
solidity of truth. The permanent value of some of 
these speeches, in the constant use and application 
which will be made of their principles to the right in- 
terpretation of the Constitution and the wise adminis- 
tration of our affairs, cannot be calculated. " I still 
live " are reported as the last words of his expiring 
consciousness. As the defender and expounder of the 
Constitution, and so long as the Union which recog- 



u 



nizcs that Constitution as its organic law shall last, it 
may be said of him " He still lives." 

In private conversation, one was often led to notice 
the manner in which by a brief, terse, epigrammatic 
sentence, he would combine and lay before you the 
whole philosophy of a subject. 

I recollect one instance of this, so striking, and as 
subsequent events have proved, such a foreshadowing 
of his own fate, as to make it doubly interesting now 
and worthy of being related. 

Some twelve or fifteen years ago, during a brief 
visit to this city, made shortly after one of his cel- 
ebrated speeches in the Senate of the United States, 
his friends in the Legislature of Massachusetts, then 
in session, gave him a public meeting or reception at 
Concert Hall. On this occasion, one gentleman in 
addressing the persons assembled, said in reference 
to some individuals then high in office in the Fed- 
eral Government, that their names would not live 
in history ; that they held prominent offices, but had 
rendered no great services to the country, and there- 
fore had secured no permanent place in the country's 
gratitude, no imperishable name to be familiar as 
household words with the future generations of its 
children. This was the idea, illustrated and urged 
with much eloquent rhetoric. Happening at this mo- 



.L.Oi (J. 



15 



ment to be standing next to Mr. Yv r cbster, a little apart 
from the speaker, I called his attention to this part of 
the speech, with the remark that it was a good point, 
well pnt, &c. He replied in a whisper, stooping over to 
my ear, so as not to interrupt the speaker, " What a 

MAN DOES FOR OTHERS, NOT WHAT OTHERS DO FOR HIM 

gives him immortality ;" and then for an instant he 
turned on me his grand, massive countenance, lighted 
up with one of those momentary, brilliant, but often 
somewhat sad and sorrowful smiles that occasionally 
played upon it, as if, even at that hour he felt that 
this would probably be his own fate ; that the highest 
office in the gift of his country would never be his, but 
that a deathless name in his country's history would be 
achieved without it. 

Mr. Webster's moral nature was on the same scale 
of grandeur with his intellectual. He had a keen and 
clear perception on all moral and religious subjects, 
and when he spoke on these themes, as I have often 
heard him in private intercourse, he treated them with 
the hand of a master, as themes which were familiar to 
his thoughts. His argument in the Gerard will case, — 
in which he aims to show that morality cannot be 
taught without religion as its basis, and that a public 
school such as Mr. Gerard contemplated, in which all 
recognition of religion was forbidden, and all instruc- 



16 



tion in it absolutely prohibited, was a nuisance, an in- 
jury and a wrong to society and not a charity, and that 
therefore the will ought not to stand, — this argument, 
one of his efforts not the least honorable to his memo- 
ry, affords conclusive evidence that the great topics of 
morality and religion which it discusses were things 
which he felt and understood, whose truths he received, 
and perfectly comprehended their important bearing 
irpon individual virtue, upon social prosperity and hap- 
piness. Indeed Mr. Webster's nature was of neces- 
sity religious, — that is, it was too great a nature to 
be sceptic or infidel. He believed. Faith, as a sen- 
timent, or moral instinct, was an essential element 
of his being. Of whatever faults or failings in prac- 
tice, he may have been guilty, if in him, as in all 
of us, human frailty and sin had their hour of mani- 
festation and triumph, this is clear, — it will be ad- 
mitted by all who have been personally intimate with 
him, — that like all men of true genius, of the high- 
est intellectual endowments, he had a profound sen- 
timent of religious reverence, a lively religious sen- 
sibility and a firm religious faith. He was educated in 
the spirit and principles of New England Congrega- 
tionalism. Early in life, he professed his christian 
faith by becoming a member of the First Congrega- 
tional Church of Salisbury, N. H. At Portsmouth he 



17 



attended the church of which the Rev. Dr.-Buckmins- 
ter was then pastor and on his removal to this city, he 
purchased a pew in this church, and was for many 
years a constant worshipper and communicant with 
us* Formerly, while I sustained to him distinctly 

* There was nothing narrow, bigotted or sectarian about Mr. Webster's reli- 
gious opinions, and the attempt which seems to have been made in some quarters 
to claim him as of this or that school of Theology, has little to sustain it As 
he had occasion or opportunity he could worship and commune with all churches 
which permitted him to do so. The evidences of Christianity, its supernatural 
character, and the bearing of this upon the authority of Christ, the reverence due 
to him, were points which he had examined-but many dogmas about which sects 
are contending seem never to have interested his mind. He was educated m the 
spirit and principles of New England Congregationalism. The only direct pro- 
fession of faith he ever made was in joining a Congregational Church; during 
the greater part of his life he worshipped constantly at a Congregational Church, 
and for more than twenty years, worshipped, communed, acted and voted as a 
member of a Congregational Church, whose creed or covenant introduces no dis- 
puted doctrine of Christian Theology, but simply demands of its members " a 
belief in the Holy Scriptures as a revelation of the mind and will of God to men 
for their salvation, repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ as 
the promised Mesiah, and Saviour of the world." Subsequently domestie rela- 
tions led him to worship commonly at an Episcopal Church, but he was never 
"confirmed "as a member of that Church; and while doubtless in the catholic 
spirit which all should cherish, he respected and honored its ministry and its in- 
stitutions, and among its members, both clergy and laity, numbered many valued 
friends, their is no evidence that he had any such special faith in its articles, or 
ritual, Is compared with those of other denominations, as to authorize the claim 
that he was peculiarly or exclusively a member of that church. So far as is 
known to the writer, and it could not well have been done without his knowledge, 
Mr. Webster never by any formal act withdrew his relations from the Congrega- 
tional Church, and without this withdrawal, he could not, with any just respect 
for himself or the Congregational Church, or for whatever other communion he 
proposed to enter, become technically a church member in any other denomina- 
tion. This subject is alluded to by the writer not because he deems it of the 
slightest importance, but because it is the most convenient way of answering a 
lar-e number of letters addressed to him making inquiries upon this point. 



3 



18 



the office of pastor, I had frequent conversations with 
him upon religious subjects; in these conversations 
and while speaking from the pulpit, I have often had 
occasion to notice his evident emotion. His religious 
impressibility was great, and his religious feelings were 
always easily moved by an earnest and affectionate ap- 
peal from the preacher. At one interview, which I had 
with him, he made a declaration so strong and graphic, 
that it has remained upon my memory, as if engraved 
with the point of a diamond. On the day that inter- 
vened between the funeral of his daughter, Mrs. Apple- 
ton, and that of his son, Major Edward Webster, at 
whose obsequies I had been summoned to officiate, I 
called on him to express my sympathy in his double 
bereavement. Our salutation at meeting was a silent 
wringing of the hand ; neither of us spoke for some 
time. He was the first to break the silence, which he 
did in these words, after an evident but only partially 
successful effort at composure, " I feel Mr. Lothrop, 
at this hour that all that constitutes the glory and dig- 
nity of man is contained in the religion of Jesus. We 
have nothing and can turn to nothing but that. If 
my friends should not think it savored of presump- 
tion or vanity, I could wish to leave on my tombstone 
at Marshfield only this inscription, ' He was a believer 
in the religion of Jesus. ' This sentence, uttered an- 



19 



der such circumstances, in that deep-toned voice, com- 
ing from that grand, intellectual countenance, his sturdy 
form quivering all over with emotion, made an impres- 
sion that I can never forget. To deny that he then 
felt with deepest sincerity what he uttered, would be 
the extreme of cruelty and injustice. What one of us 
lives up constantly to his best hours, his best emotions, 
his highest thoughts and aims'? Let him, and hhn 
only, who is without sin among us, cast the first stone 
at his memory. He has done enough things good and 
great to be remembered ; let the evil if there was any 
be forgotten. He has gone to answer to a higher tri- 
bunal than that of man's judgment. He has gone be- 
yond the reach of party strife, of political envy or 
hatred, of earthly care or trouble. Let not these min- 
gle in the emotions which his death awakens, or inter- 
fere with the just respect with which we should cher- 
ish his memory. That death, which could never have 
occurred without making the pulse of the nation beat 
with the throb of regret, receives an additional force 
and impressiveness from the time and circumstances 
under which it occurred, and the events of the few last 
months. In the midst of an exciting electioneering 
campaign, himself one of the claimants and candidates 
for the highest office in the gift of the country, when 
his name is bruited all over the land, with blame or 



20 



praise, eulogy or censure, according to the parties that 
speak of him, and only a few days before the great con- 
test itself is to be decided, death strikes him to the 
dust, blots out his name from among the living, leaves 
only his lifeless remains to be deposited in the silent 
grave. Who does not think of the Psalmist's declara- 
tion " verily every man living at his best estate is alto- 
gether vanity." We do not wonder that men pause 
and look at each other with thoughtful countenances. 
We do not wonder that there is a momentary lull even 
hi the storm of political strife. It would be strange if 
it were not so. Here is the whole nation brought as 
it were into the very presence of death, that it may 
learn a lesson of the insignificance and vanity of those 
baubles of human ambition for which men strive, 
struggle, toil with such intense devotion, such un- 
ceasing effort and sacrifice. God in mercy grant that 
the lesson may not be unheeded. God grant that 
this signal providence may be sanctified to the best 
good of the nation. May it humble our pride, check 
our presumption, chasten our devotion to material in- 
terests and our trust in them. May it turn our hearts 
to God, and help us so to live in obedience to his great 
laws, in conformity to his holy will, that we may feel 
assured that " he will be with " and his blessing be 
upon us even as it was upon our fathers. 









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